No kidding! Note Dr. Israel's rare Jubilee oaks atop a NONCOMBATANT EK2/1870-how cool is that?
The DRK chap who looks like Oliver Hardy is wearing a DRK medal 3rd class with a colonial clasp, is he not? These were awarded.

This guy is either an uber-patriot con man or a con man using emotive patriotism. Word on the street is he has hopes to get the sale banned, then lobby Congress to fund his Purple Heart Memorial Center and pay himself to be Executive Director of course.
He has mastered the process of using modern US media to create " false" but feel good stories-combining a straw man enemy of " greedy businessmen profiting off the deaths of heroes" with a feel-good story about a " lost" item being returned to distant family members. Recently he " returned" a " Purple Heart Death Diploma" issued by the state of Vermont to a family of dustant relatives ( 3rd cousins twice removed) of a poor 18 year old guy who died of flu and never left Vermont in 1918. It made a great photo op and he stated that " greedy, nasty eBay gun-type collectors" who drove the price up". The 24 year old journlist did not know, nor care that dying of flu did not merit a Purple Heart. It's about selling advertising in the papers-and pathos sells. I heard that the certificate is now apparently in the back of the family garage, ready to be tossed out in the next de-cluttering.
The free market is brutal-if you can not sell it, why would you pay to send it to the "Purple Heart Museum"? You won't -and these medals will go into the garbage.
This guy was apparently also a trump Campaign county director and has been lobbying hard for his poposed " Purple Heart ban" .

Not only pilots, flight crew qualified too- and I would bet this guy ended his career as a Major. Note The USAAC good conducts- followed by only one USAF good conduct-6/9 years total enlisted time. But two NCO schools AND 24 years (+) based on the longevity ribbon. Career from@ 1953-1978-ish? When was the long tour deployment ribbon created?

I have long suspected that the Ethiopian Derg regime, once the Marxists had eliminated their opposition on the "Council", reissued the nations' more popular medals, probably around 1980 or so. While my struggles with the Amharic dictionary are still epic, I have recently had a bit of a breakthrough with this medal.
My imprecise translation is that the medal commemorates "Struggle against Fascist Aggression" with the dates, 1928-1933. Given the Ethiopians follow the old style Julian calender, this translates to 1935-1940, or the years of the Italian-Ethiopian war.
Thus, I believe I can now (tentatively) identify this mysterious medal as a reissue, almost certainly made in the GDR (or Czechoslovakia), of the earlier Patriotic War Medal, which had featured the bust of the Emperor, Hale Selassie.
There seems to have been also a reissue of the refugees' medal, which also had incorporated the Emperor's likeness and the Victory Star, as a medal.
Note also that there are two "types" of this medal, with a slightly different inscription on the planchet. Also, what I presume to be a later version seems to be lighter in weight and made of a cupro-alloy, not (faux?) bronze (as here).

Is the ribbon on the Derg refugee medal a Nigerian one? I reckon the Resistance planchet got swapped over- but maybe there was a rare variation? The Negerat was published right through the Mengistu collapse, so perhaps it can clear up some question. The LOC has a full run.

In late 1919 Sinn Fein began to gear up for a war to take over Ireland. One of the first steps they took, besides organizing, was to attempt to garnish funds. As ever, their allies in the USA, a group of largely Irish immigrants centered around large cities, supplied cash, moral support and passion.
I found this at my local flea market under a book that I literally picked up off the table for my cousin Rick (A History of Chelmsford in World War Two with biographies and medals awarded, a massive tome...mine for a mere $10). My hand literally trembled as I reached down for it amidst the old tax receipts from Boston and 100 year old Valentines cards....
This is one of the bonds sold by the IRA in its American campaign for support. Sold via the IRB and AOH, as well as advertised in newspapers, the IRA raised millions of US $ for their war. I got this for $1.....my find of the year.

This is a postcard I picked up last Summer at the local swap meet.
It was taken in late 1914 (?) and shows the kindly looking Srgnt. Michael Brophy in Canada (note cap badge). He is an acting Sergeant and obviously was pulled back in to train the vast number of new recruits that flooded into the recruiting offices after the call went out to defend the Empire.
The interesting thing is .............would he...DID he, qualify for the BWM as well?
Brophey served in the Crimea and was a hero at Sevastopol . Indeed, a quick google search shows he was a bit of a marksman and trench raider in 1855/56 and received the French Medal Militaire as a Lance Corporal.
Later he got the Fenian Raid medal and the "army/navy veterans' cross" (whatever that is).
Note he is also wearing an active service badge on his right pocket.
Imagine THAT group- with a BWM - in an auction.......